SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which means optimizing your website and pages for search engines like Google. The goal is to make your website more findable and rise in search results. With the proliferation of businesses and websites, and the fact that more and more people are paying attention to SEO, you really can't be left behind. Otherwise, you will simply be snowed in by your competitors. In this blog we will tell you the ins and outs of SEO and give you SEO tips that you can start using right away.
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SEO tips: pleasing Google
What is certain is that Google evaluates written content for relevance and rating. In doing so, the search engine asks whether the content that has been written matches the search engine user's query and whether the website is good. By good we mean that the website is user-friendly, works fast, looks nice and much more. Ultimately, the better you take these and many more aspects into account, the higher you will eventually rank in search results.
If you think you are finally there with fulfilling Google's wishes, you are sadly mistaken. Google keeps evolving and comes up with new developments and features every so often. And as Google changes, you have to change with it. This means that what works well today may not work at all in a month's time. In fact, with SEO, you're never done.
The 10 SEO tips to keep in mind
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Write original blogs
Blogs have a hugely positive impact on SEO. No matter what the angle of your website, a blog helps. First, it is very important to have some textual content on your website. This helps Google understand your website and its purpose. By regularly posting new content, such as blogs, Google also immediately understands that your website is active and up-to-date. This then obviously contributes to your place in the rankings.
How to write the perfect blog for the user and Google? Check out the video below!
Make use of keywords
Another reason blogs are so important for your SEO is that through writing them, you can capitalize on keywords of the potential website visitors. Keywords are simply the words used to search in search engines, such as Google. By using those keywords, you respond to the demand of the target audience. At Monkey Vision , we specialize in website development, so we want to be found by people searching for that. So we target our content accordingly. Even though we love monkeys, we will never write a blog with information about different monkey species. That simply doesn't connect with the target audience we want to reach. So it's good to put yourself in the shoes of the target audience and what they type in on Google.
You can then use this when writing your content. Another option is Google Keyword Planner. This tool helps you find good keywords and shows you how much they are actually searched for.
Other useful SEO tools are:
Use a good title
When you have written a good blog, tailored to your target audience, a good title is a must. With this title you trigger the visitors of your website to actually read the blog. Google can also trigger you with a good title, so make sure that your keyword can also be found in the title. A few simple tips for a good SEO title:
- Use years in the title: This shows that the content is current, which makes it more attractive to the potential reader.
- Put numbers in the title: Lists and roadmaps are interesting to read and it also makes readers scan the text better.
- Use attractive words: Words like 'free', 'new', 'manual' and 'roadmap' are words that are music to the ears of people looking for articles or information.
More tips for better SEO titles? Check out the video below!
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Use simple and beautiful URLs
Maybe you have seen it before: long links with a combination of numbers and letters that say nothing. Unattractive for the reader, but also for Google. A clear and simple link will make Google much happier and potential readers will click on the link much faster. Just look at the link of this blog at the top of your browser; clear and simple!
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Write a good meta description
Need more tips to create better meta descripions?
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Link in your text to other texts
In texts you can link in two different ways, internally and externally. Both have a great value and contribute to SEO and therefore without a doubt had to get a place among the SEO tips. We briefly explain both of them for you.
Internal linking
Internal linking is the best way to bring structure to your website, which in turn contributes to the website’s user experience. It’s important that a page is never a “dead end”; users should always be able to easily click through to the next piece of content on your website.
Google will also benefit from your structure, because it follows all the links on your website. Google will begin to understand the structure of your website when you link internally. The more links point to a certain page, the more important that page is, and Google will eventually understand that too.
External linking
External links are the links that point from your website to other websites. Of course, you can also get these links 'back', i.e. someone pointing from their website to yours; this is called backlinking. In both cases, it is important that you do not do it too much, because Google may find it a bit suspicious. This is because those links contribute to the authority of a Web site, which basically says that a particular Web site is a good place to find information. When this external linking and backlinking happens way too much, it is no longer credible for Google and you are actually penalized for it. So find a good and appropriate way where you give external links and get links back, but to a credible degree.
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Use images
First of all, images make the text more attractive to the reader. Especially with long texts this is very important. Tell me; if you saw this entire text without images, you would be a lot less inclined to read the whole thing, right? Images break up the text and also immediately give a good idea about the topics/parts of the text. Of course, it is then important that they are appropriate images. For example, images than dolphins would be very nice, but it says absolutely nothing about the topic we are discussing.
Posting images involves a bit more than just picking the right ones. It is also important that the images have a proper filename that says something about the subject. An image with file name 9283505.JPEG of course says nothing at all, but with SEO-tips-2022.JPEG you immediately know what it is about. Again, this helps Google understand the topic of the text.
Besides the title, a proper alt tag is also good for SEO. The alt tag actually describes what the image is about. It is good to include your keyword here.
Want to know more about how to optimize images for SEO? Then check out the video below now!
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Design landing pages, also using our SEO tips
Besides the SEO tips, there are a number of other things a good landing page should meet:
- Use whitespace between paragraphs to divide the text into manageable pieces.
- Use clear headings, this way people may be able to go straight to the section they want to read.
- Make short sentences and don't make paragraphs too long either. Try to make paragraphs about 6 lines long maximum.
- In order for Google to view your text/landing page, you must have a minimum of 300 words. There is nothing fixed for the maximum number of words, it depends on the target audience and the purpose of the text/page. As long as your text is of good quality and contributes something, it's good. If you start repeating information and don't have anything new to add, you're probably written out on the subject. Quality before quantity!
- Use call-to-actions. Urge the reader to take a certain action. Think contact, subscribe to a newsletter or maybe even like the Facebook page. Make sure the reader doesn't just leave it at reading the text.
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Google My Business
Google My business (GMB) is your own business environment within Google. It forms the basis for a good (local) SEO strategy, so of course it cannot be missing among the SEO tips. GMB is the way for Google to check content and the quality of an organization. It is important that you complete your GMB as completely as possible with photos of the company and information about opening hours, contact details and address details.
Also, GMB is the way to get reviews. Reviews are very important. Manon and Anne, from our marketing team, recently wrote an article about it for Frankwatching!
At Monkey Vision we can help you set up your Google My Business, so you can get a good start with SEO. Interesting for you? Read more about our SEO starter package here.
Did you know that Google my business has its own ranking system? Find out how to best optimize your listing in the video below.
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Make sure your website works on all devices
Since a few years, tablets and smartphones have become a bigger and bigger part of our lives. It is therefore not surprising that the figures show that more and more people visit websites with their smartphone. It is therefore very important that your website also works ideally with them and looks nice. The website must adapt, as it were, to the device on which it is opened; we call this 'responsive'.
Google has also started to find this increasingly important. You can be penalized if your website is not responsive. It is simply important that every website visitor has a pleasant experience with the website.
Are you less technical yourself, but want a responsive website? Then we at Monkey Vision can help you. When you let us design your website or ecommerce store, we always make sure it is fully responsive.
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Website speed
User experience is very important, both for your potential website visitors and for Google. A website that loads very slowly will scare off website visitors and Google will not appreciate it either. So a good website speed is important.
You can use tools like GTMetrix and Google Pagespeed Insights to analyze the speed of your website. If the website is not fast enough, a speed optimization is highly recommended. WP Rocket's plugin is a good option to help with this. Would you rather have some help from an expert? Then feel free to contact us and we will see how we can help you.
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Use useful tools
Google Search Console
With Google Search Console you can get insight into the findability of your website within Google. It also analyzes whether there are any errors in your website and whether the website is mobile friendly. A good tool to gain more insight into the performance of your website.
Yoast SEO plugin
Yoast has a very user-friendly plugin for your WordPress website. With that tool you can easily see what you can do to your pages to make them SEO better. In addition, it also helps you write the SEO title and meta description. The plugin comes in a premium version as well as a free version.
Outsource SEO or get started yourself with our SEO tips?
With some of the SEO tips you can probably do a lot yourself, but for the more technical tips you might need some help. Of course you can also choose to outsource the entire aspect of SEO to an expert, so you can continue to focus on the things you like to do.
At Monkey Vision , we are happy to help you where needed. This can also come in different degrees. You can get the SEO starter package from us, where we set everything up properly for you, such as Google My Business, and optimize for Google. That is the first step. Then you can start working with the SEO tips yourself, or you can purchase the SEO monthly package. Then every month we work hard to ensure that your website is SEO-ready. So that you can be found a little better and better in Google. Feel free to contact us to see how we can help you.
